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A defendant’s criminal convictions have been upheld by the Rhode Island Supreme Court despite his challenge to the trial court’s decision to allow the state to strike a prospective juror.
The defendant, Dari Garcia, argued that the trial judge erred in allowing the state to strike a prospective minority juror in violation of the principles established in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986).
“The defendant in effect asserts that the trial justice erred in determining that the state proffered sufficient race-neutral reasons in response to defendant’s Batson challenge,” Justice William P. Robinson III noted for the majority.
“We … perceive no error in the trial justice’s determination that the state’s third race-neutral reason was sufficient. The trial justice emphasized that Juror 98 indicated that she had been the victim of an assault. According to the trial justice, she was unable to articulate facts relating to the incident and she became very distraught when discussing the matter. The defendant has offered no convincing reason to disturb the trial justice’s appraisal of this reason relied upon by the prosecutor,” Robinson wrote.
Justice Melissa A. Long offered a concurring opinion.
“The uncomfortable reality is that trial judges may succeed in applying the Batson framework but fail to ‘prevent racial discrimination from seeping into the jury selection process,’” Long stated.
“In my view, this Court should exercise its general supervisory authority to correct errors and abuses in the jury-selection process by promulgating a rule that eliminates the use of peremptory strikes in jury trials and directs trial justices to apply heightened scrutiny to the exercise of for-cause strikes,” she added.
The 79-page decision is State v. Garcia, Lawyers Weekly No. 60-051-24.
Click here to read the full text of the opinion.